I can't be bothered with the whole spoiler space thing, but I did the Milton Keynes parkrun on Saturday making it my 3rd Co:parkrun. I came 15th out of 464 with a time of 19:54. I was the only one taking part (other than the other 463 but you know what I mean).

Gavin Chipper wrote:Not CO related but I did the Portobello parkrun in Edinburgh today and got 19:33, knocking a whole one second off my PB. Not bad since I haven't done any running and have been eating shit all week.

You should have said, I'd have come along and finished minutes behind you.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Not CO related but I did the Portobello parkrun in Edinburgh today and got 19:33, knocking a whole one second off my PB. Not bad since I haven't done any running and have been eating shit all week.

You should have said, I'd have come along and finished minutes behind you.

I had my best finish today, coming 8th and was exactly 1 minute slower than you (20:54). I've PB'd in all my parkruns so far which is promising and my pace today was the best it has been with average km speed being ~4:16 at every 5 minute interval. Still felt like I had a bit left in the tank but not too much. I reckon I could just about break the 20 minute mark going at my current 'regime' which is no training throughout the week and just turning up and doing a parkrun. To realistically challenge you and Matt B then I am going to have to find time to be running at least twice more a week but at the moment I'm just not finding the time which is annoying.

The only positive from today also was that I'd been on the booze the night before and had very little sleep. A funny old game.

Ryan Taylor wrote:Saw that you were 1st in your parkrun today Gev with a time of 19:54.

I had my best finish today, coming 8th and was exactly 1 minute slower than you (20:54). I've PB'd in all my parkruns so far which is promising and my pace today was the best it has been with average km speed being ~4:16 at every 5 minute interval. Still felt like I had a bit left in the tank but not too much. I reckon I could just about break the 20 minute mark going at my current 'regime' which is no training throughout the week and just turning up and doing a parkrun. To realistically challenge you and Matt B then I am going to have to find time to be running at least twice more a week but at the moment I'm just not finding the time which is annoying.

The only positive from today also was that I'd been on the booze the night before and had very little sleep. A funny old game.

My times haven't been improving much recently, so I'm changing my training schedule. My sprint is awful at the moment, and while it's not the most important thing in a 5k, I think it's worth having and I'm going to do some work on that among other things. You're going to have to break 19 to beat me at COLIN!

My parkrun is probably a lower standard than most. I think I'd struggle to find many others where I could finish first. And even then, 19:54 will only very occasionally put you top. Having said that, it's said that the hill costs you 30 seconds, so arguably it's worth 19:24 on a nice flat course (my countrywide PB stands at 19:33 and my local PB is 19:43).

Well done on your time anyway. It sounds like you're doing a decent job of it.

Just did the CO:ventry run. Most professional one (it started at 9.00 exactly!) I've been to so far and had around 500 runners. Got 22.20 which is respectable considering I've done no exercise the past 2 weeks.

Giles wrote:Just did the CO:ventry run. Most professional one (it started at 9.00 exactly!) I've been to so far and had around 500 runners. Got 22.20 which is respectable considering I've done no exercise the past 2 weeks.

Good work. Did you go to the Coventry parkrun just so that you could make that pun? Does that count as a pun? Yeah, I think so. I got my all-time PB of 19:25 today at my local today. Guy with his dog didn't turn up so I was first!

Are you doing the parkrun at COLIN (I probably asked you this at Milton Keynes)? I'll definitely do it as long as it's convenient to get to and from, and hopefully we'll get a decent number of people to do it (including Matt, Lauren, Corby, Ryan, Jono, maybe even Oliver Garner).

Does anyone else use http://www.runbritainrankings.com/ ? I find their "scoring" system a little odd. They have an "SSS" score for each course, which is supposed to be an adjustment for how hard the course is on the day (it's really inaccurate by the way, based on its wildly varying scores for my largely unchanging local parkrun), and also a "vSSS" score, which is your own score seemingly taking into account the difficultly as well as your time. All very well and good. But you can also sort your results by "Adjusted Best Times". Isn't that what vSSS is supposed to be? What's going on here? It also doesn't have a figure you can look at for the adjusted best times. It's just an invisible thing that it can order the results by.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Are you doing the parkrun at COLIN (I probably asked you this at Milton Keynes)? I'll definitely do it as long as it's convenient to get to and from, and hopefully we'll get a decent number of people to do it (including Matt, Lauren, Corby, Ryan, Jono, maybe even Oliver Garner).

Can't work out what disgusts me more: running early in the morning or a Little Chef breakfast.

Oliver Garner wrote:Cambridge Freshers' Fun Run - surely race of the day

Ha, I've done that race three times - sadly in the years before the full results were recorded online - but my training diary has the following recorded:
10-Oct-93: 20:06 (no position recorded)
08-Oct-95: 18:57 (19th place)
13-Oct-96: 18:14 (14th place)
In 1993, the current university running track and pavilion had yet to be built, and the course was different - it was billed as "3.3 miles".

It seems I only make one appearance in the online CUH&H results nowadays, as an interloper finishing in 37th place in 2005 Cuppers.

My short-lived running career may well be over by the way. I did a 10k about four weeks back and, despite doing with them ease in training, it absolutely destroyed my left foot and knee. I did the parkrun last weekend with my 11 year old daughter, and even she burnt me off at the end because I was practically dragging my left leg round for 4.5km. Co-parkrun-lin may well be off for me The ravages of old age.

Jon Corby wrote:My short-lived running career may well be over by the way. I did a 10k about four weeks back and, despite doing with them ease in training, it absolutely destroyed my left foot and knee. I did the parkrun last weekend with my 11 year old daughter, and even she burnt me off at the end because I was practically dragging my left leg round for 4.5km. Co-parkrun-lin may well be off for me The ravages of old age.

Shit. See a doctor or something. You've got nearly three months. Sort it out or I'm leaving the tribe.

Jon Corby wrote:My short-lived running career may well be over by the way. I did a 10k about four weeks back and, despite doing with them ease in training, it absolutely destroyed my left foot and knee. I did the parkrun last weekend with my 11 year old daughter, and even she burnt me off at the end because I was practically dragging my left leg round for 4.5km. Co-parkrun-lin may well be off for me The ravages of old age.

Jon Corby wrote:My short-lived running career may well be over by the way. I did a 10k about four weeks back and, despite doing with them ease in training, it absolutely destroyed my left foot and knee. I did the parkrun last weekend with my 11 year old daughter, and even she burnt me off at the end because I was practically dragging my left leg round for 4.5km. Co-parkrun-lin may well be off for me The ravages of old age.

Huh? Did someone make a bet? Definitely wouldn't have been me against Gev's times. I had managed to get my PB down to 22:25 before my injuries, which I was well chuffed with but still absolutely nowhere near Gev's.

Jon Corby wrote:Huh? Did someone make a bet? Definitely wouldn't have been me against Gev's times. I had managed to get my PB down to 22:25 before my injuries, which I was well chuffed with but still absolutely nowhere near Gev's.

At COLIN last year, me and Jono made a £50 bet on a parkrun in January of next year. At the time I was injured and wasn't sure when I'd be back, so Jono factored that into the chances of him winning. As it is, I've been running quite consistently since March. Also Jono might have still had a chance, but as far as I understand he's done fuck all training.

Jon Corby wrote:Huh? Did someone make a bet? Definitely wouldn't have been me against Gev's times. I had managed to get my PB down to 22:25 before my injuries, which I was well chuffed with but still absolutely nowhere near Gev's.

At COLIN last year, me and Jono made a £50 bet on a parkrun in January of next year. At the time I was injured and wasn't sure when I'd be back, so Jono factored that into the chances of him winning. As it is, I've been running quite consistently since March. Also Jono might have still had a chance, but as far as I understand he's done fuck all training.

Huh? I think you've completely misremembered this.. as I recall Jon said he was a better natural athlete than you and then you two banged on about it all weekend. Corby ended up goading you into the a £50 bet..

Jon Corby wrote:Huh? Did someone make a bet? Definitely wouldn't have been me against Gev's times. I had managed to get my PB down to 22:25 before my injuries, which I was well chuffed with but still absolutely nowhere near Gev's.

At COLIN last year, me and Jono made a £50 bet on a parkrun in January of next year. At the time I was injured and wasn't sure when I'd be back, so Jono factored that into the chances of him winning. As it is, I've been running quite consistently since March. Also Jono might have still had a chance, but as far as I understand he's done fuck all training.

Huh? I think you've completely misremembered this.. as I recall Jon said he was a better natural athlete than you and then you two banged on about it all weekend. Corby ended up goading you into the a £50 bet..

My parkrun progress has slowed up. Haven't been as much (been pretty bad weather some weekends so have rather stayed in bed) and then when I did go the other week my time had got slower by a minute. I'm basically around the 21 minute mark.

Ryan Taylor wrote:My parkrun progress has slowed up. Haven't been as much (been pretty bad weather some weekends so have rather stayed in bed) and then when I did go the other week my time had got slower by a minute. I'm basically around the 21 minute mark.

Sometimes conditions can slow you down. I got 20:21 on Saturday expecting to be on PB form (19:25). But the wind was ridiculous and the course was also quite slippery. I probably wouldn't have actually got my PB, but I would have certainly been under 20 minutes. Could the same have happened to you?

Right, I'm going to put up a ranking list of Countdown/Apterous parkrunners. I'll check it every so often to see if anyone's beaten their PB, and if anyone is really insistent that they don't want to be on the list, then I can remove their name. And if I've forgotten anyone, let me know and I can add them. This list is unlikely to be anywhere near exhaustive.

Zarte Siempre wrote:How long does it take an unfit, fat bloke to go 5km in a wheelchair?

Asking for a friend.

No idea. It probably depends on the course. Wheels are notoriously bad for going up steep hills. I know the elite wheelchair athletes are actually faster than runners over this sort of distance (on a flat course) but I've no idea how that would translate down the percentiles.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Right, I'm going to put up a ranking list of Countdown/Apterous parkrunners. I'll check it every so often to see if anyone's beaten their PB, and if anyone is really insistent that they don't want to be on the list, then I can remove their name. And if I've forgotten anyone, let me know and I can add them. This list is unlikely to be anywhere near exhaustive.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Right, I'm going to put up a ranking list of Countdown/Apterous parkrunners. I'll check it every so often to see if anyone's beaten their PB, and if anyone is really insistent that they don't want to be on the list, then I can remove their name. And if I've forgotten anyone, let me know and I can add them. This list is unlikely to be anywhere near exhaustive.

Zarte Siempre wrote:How long does it take an unfit, fat bloke to go 5km in a wheelchair?

Asking for a friend.

The parkrun I sometimes go to (and by sometimes I mean once since I am normally to lazy to get up that early on a Saturday) has a few people in wheelchairs and even a few people pushing prams so I can see if I can find out average times for them

Zarte Siempre wrote:How long does it take an unfit, fat bloke to go 5km in a wheelchair?

Asking for a friend.

The parkrun I sometimes go to (and by sometimes I mean once since I am normally to lazy to get up that early on a Saturday) has a few people in wheelchairs and even a few people pushing prams so I can see if I can find out average times for them

With a time of 13:19, Michael McCabe is the fastest wheelchair athlete I can find in parkrun records. Presumably that time was achieved in a racing chair.

I'd be curious to know the fastest time in a conventional chair, although this would be hard to determine as the type of chair is not recorded.

Incidentally, with the zigzags (a short but steep climb), Milton Keynes parkrun is not well suited to wheelchair users. To date, no wheelchair athlete has ever completed Milton Keynes parkrun (as indicated by the blank pages here and here). Or at least, any wheelchair athletes have not been recorded as such.

Pushchairs and even dogs are common sights at Parkrun. If I remember correctly, at the Kings Lynn Parkrun, which Gevin, Matt and I ran, a man with a pram overtook both Gev and Matt and finished very high up, despite starting at the back of the field. I'm certain he had a running buggy which helped.

Edit - I had previously searched for you but couldn't find anything. The parkrun website doesn't seem to be searchable, but searching often brings up the runbritainrankings site, although not reliably so.

Edit - I had previously searched for you but couldn't find anything. The parkrun website doesn't seem to be searchable, but searching often brings up the runbritainrankings site, although not reliably so.

Edit - I had previously searched for you but couldn't find anything. The parkrun website doesn't seem to be searchable, but searching often brings up the runbritainrankings site, although not reliably so.

Adam Gillard wrote:Christmas Day is the only one I can do all year - will have to get me a barcode next time!

I've put you in with an asterisk. What about New Year's Day as well? Our local parkrun is doing both days so I presume others are too.

Erm, the fuck? Clearly it shouldn't count, Asterix or otherwise.

Why can you only do Christmas Day?

Ah thanks Gev, will have to look into New Year's Day too. Jon, I can't do Saturdays owing to my religious beliefs. So if Christmas and New Year's were on Saturday I would have no opportunity whatsoever to do a Parkrun in that year.

Jon Corby wrote:Your religion says you can't run on a Saturday? Correct. So nobody in your religion could be any kind of athlete (professional or otherwise)? Well yes, if you keep that law of the religion and there are meets on Saturdays then obviously you wouldn't be able to take part and therefore you wouldn't get very far, professionally or otherwise.

What happens if you do? People of religion can range from keeping none of the laws to keeping all of the laws. The vast majority of Jews will not be religious enough to worry about running on a Saturday, and therefore could have an athletics career, professionally or otherwise. Those like me who are worried about it believe that we would be punished for sinning if we ran on a Saturday. It's by no means the worst sin though; there are even some loopholes to allow running on the Sabbath in certain situations (but not to compete in athletics). This doesn't stop me running on other days and there are plenty of races that take place on a Sunday that I can do.

It's worth noting that this situation happened famously with Eric Liddell (a devout Christian who refused to run on a Sunday) and is covered in detail in the excellent film Chariots of Fire, which garnered 4 Oscars including Best Picture.

Similarly, and more recently, in his early career, triple jumper and occasional Countdown DC guest Jonathan Edwards, a devout Christian at the time, refused to compete on a Sunday. (I don't know whether his faith extended to his refusing to train on a Sunday.)

Yeah cheers for the answer Adam. After I asked the question I did a bit of research and found the list of stuff you can't do on a Saturday. Absolutely stone-cold mental, I genuinely can't see any other description that applies.

Flogged myself around the course this morning into the teeth of a freezing norwester on the way home (my usual course is pretty much linear), although I ran behind a big bloke for shelter. Not sure if the help from the wind on the way out mitigated the nastiness.

Ian Volante wrote:Flogged myself around the course this morning into the teeth of a freezing norwester on the way home (my usual course is pretty much linear), although I ran behind a big bloke for shelter. Not sure if the help from the wind on the way out mitigated the nastiness.

Mine was awful today as well, though I suspect not as bad as Scotland. But mine has a muddy field that was impossible to run through at a normal speed, as well as a hill you have to scrape yourself up. Hardy anyone set a PB, so I was pleased just to finish first, safe in the knowledge that I was definitely on PB form!